Adrian Marx doesn't have the best of luck. In other words, his luck stat goes straight down the drain.

There's no days passed without him getting pickpocketed on almost every occasion, the one guy who's somehow able to attract the aggro of the monsters around by doing absolutely nothing and almost always the guy who's stepped on an animal waste on the grassland among his party.

As a warrior whose main use is as a tanker, it's actually good that he can attract the aggro of the surrounding monster, but he doesn't become a tanker by choice. It's pretty much do or get done.

He's awful at incantating magic spells, bad at aiming his arrow, and not good enough at spotting traps. The one thing he's good at is swaying around his great sword and taking damages for his supporting party with his armor clad body, getting by the day with a lot of bloody wounds on his body, and moving on to his next commission when he’s healed enough.

A long time ago, when he was a child, his bad luck prompted his parents, who were also a pair of adventurers, to seek a fortune teller. Quoting his parents who were quoting the fortune teller, "He was born under the ill omened twin stars, and as long as he was alive, he would be followed by bad luck."

His parents tried to find ways to at least make his luck a little better, but from their research, it seems like that if he were somehow able to meet another person who was born under the same twin stars, the two of them can elevate their life somehow.

But the world is wide, and birth records were only available for the government officials, and even so it's not that reliable in the term of accuracy.

Today he also sighed his usual woe while staring sorrowfully at the blue sky, his somewhat long hair fluttering from the winds, "How long will this bad luck of mine go on?"

He had no lover and his family were gone—as they opted to travel the world when he reached adulthood and they lost contact along the way. Friends? Hah! The most he'll get is getting swindled, yet the one that hurt his feelings was those who were there only to laugh at his misfortune or those who will go away as they're afraid of getting 'infected' by his Ill fated future.

"I've been living with this bad luck of mine for a quire of springs and I haven't gone kaput am I?" He complained in his heart, as he walked on to the adventurer guild to check on some commissions he can get.

Living in the town isn't cheap and he gets pickpocketed often, so he often took a bunch of quests as he go when he wasn't invited to a party by some random folks.

He was silently scrutinizing the long commission board on the wall of the noisy guild while counting on his living express for this month when suddenly he heard a loud "Oh no!!" and a loud thud and a bang and splashes mixed with various curses from different voices behind him.

He took a look and saw a man in white clergy attire he had never seen before sprawled on the floor and surrounded by some angry mobs who're still spitting out curses at him. On the side, a new waitress he has just seen for a couple of days was dashing away from them.

Those party of four who were saying the various curses as fluently as you would say good morning were infamous for being good at intimidating the newbies and a boot licker with those higher ranked adventurers. A lot of people were annoyed at them for harassing the new seedlings and any pretty woman they see, but they never really go that out of the line, so the guild master could only issued some warnings and can't legally chase them out despite everyone's annoyance.

The cleric guy kept on uttering "I'm sorry I'm sorry" with a panicked face at the people around him as he tried to get up, but he slipped on the wet floor and it caused one of the angry guy to get headbutted on his solar plexus while from the force of the inertia of the collision and heavy looking backpack made the cleric guy tumble back and the back of his head hit the nose of the other angry guy behind him, while his flailing hand that tried to find a balance as he fell accidentally jabbed the other guy on his adam apple and his long staff somehow manage to landed a blow at yet another angry guy at his lower region.

And all five of them fall back down to the wet puddles of beer on the floor. The sounds of "Oh no!!!" from the cleric guy, a few thuds, a few bangs, some splashes, and curses were heard again, but there's some additional howls of pain and agony from one of the four angry guys.

Everyone who watched at the sidelines were stupefied, not knowing what to say or do as the event unfolded in an absolutely fast pace in front of them. 

The cleric guy tried to get up again, still uttering his sorry and slipped on the wet floor—again. This time he accidentally kicked the chin of the guy he headbutted, stepped on the face of the guy whom he smack the nose bloody, elbowed the stomach of the guy the neck he punched, and landed heavily on his butt on the back of the guy the family jewel he ruined, exactly in the order of his hits in the first round.

Everyone could only be silent as they watch, including the four previously angry guys on the floor because all of them were out cold. 

...What is this madness?

The cleric guy tried to get up yet again, and said "I'm so sorry! I really don't mean it!!!" while managed to sway his staff and knocked it on one of the guy's head on the floor that's started to wake up, and the man doesn't move at all this time.

Even if the cleric guy said it's not on purpose, who the hell would believe him?!

The waitress was walking together with the guild receptionist that was known to be more bad in temper than the guild master—namely the guild master's wife—to the crime scene, both looked unhappy. The cleric guy is still trying to apologize and now is trying to haul the beaten guys up—with no result except to add another bruises to their limp body, and the other adventurers and customers still haven't woken up from their stupor.

Seeing that the situation was dire, Adrian, for whatever reason, stepped out and took the cleric by the collar and ran away from the scene. By the time the receptionist and waitress arrived and the spectators realized that, they've already gone and only left them with one question,

"What in the Goddess's shoes just happened?!"

Adrian ran very fast, not hindered by the weight of another person and the heavy backpack on his arm since he was chased by monsters or people's pets often, so his legs were pretty fast.

When they're far away enough from the guild building, he stopped and let down the flailing cleric on the ground.

Wiping his cold sweat, he asked, "What the hell just happened over there?"

"Eh? Ah? Uh, I, I don't… know? They were harassing the lady so I told them to stop, but I slipped and knocked the tray holding the tankard hahaha..." answer the cleric with a nervous smile. Unsure why he was kidnapped.

"..."

Deciding to not ask anything about the bizarre occurrence he just witnessed anymore, Adrian shook his head, "Forget about it. The missus is probably going to blame all of the things to the four blockheads since you're out, and you probably only need to pay for some damages, but no labor or other scary stuff she might do for having a fight? I guess? On the guild grounds." thinking about those 'scary stuff', he shivered.

"O, Oh… is that so? Then I should thank you for taking me out?" still uncertain, the cleric asked.

"Nah, it's cool. I don't think you can go away unnoticed since many people saw you and a male cleric are somewhat rare in this side of town. I've never seen you before, so I guess you're from another town?" ask Adrian. The man before him doesn't look too much like a greenhorn since the 'look of an adventurer' was on him, and he was probably around his age.

"Yes, I was actually from the church of the far west, and just arrived three days ago in this town. I was about to register into the adventurer guild."

"Is that so? Well. Good luck then. Those four guys most likely won't retaliate too much except for some jeering and talking behind your back. It's not like it's their first beating anyway," And it's more likely that they'll be afraid of you and avoided you like a plague.

"Also, make sure you don't come back today and only go again tomorrow, and don't forget to bring some money. Missus usually would look the other way as long as the cost for damage was paid. There's a healer in our guild so you would only need to pay for that too, but it won't be too much," Adrian explained. But thinking about it, isn't one of a cleric's magic is healing? Now he wondered if he shouldn't have taken him after all… But seeing that the cleric became even more distressed, he frowned, "Is something the matter?"

"Um… That is… I don't have… money?" the cleric said with a cringe.

Adrian raised his eyebrow. When a new cleric were to set out from the church to the outside world, they're usually equipped with a good amount of money and equipment to set their path and as a good healer with a variation of holy magic that's often sought after, most clerics usually have a pretty heavy pocket even after some portion of it goes back to the church. You could say that they're quite pampered, so listening to the other guy said otherwise, Adrian was quite baffled. 

"It is hard to say, but I think I got pickpocketed when I arrived in the town. I was sure to have it secures on my body when I entered the busy market, but I didn't realize it was gone until I finished my meal at some tavern back there..." he said with a sad expression, "Since I don't have money and I can't pay it back, the owner kindly let me do some chores these few days and I even manage to get some money for registration fee for the guild and a meal for this evening, but after that…"

The cleric was silent. Adrian was also silent.

Clerics were usually equipped with an anti robbery magical pocket. How in the world is he able to get pickpocketed?!

"Um, so, what's your plan after this?" Adrian asked.

"Probably going to wait the day out. I'll just see what I can do tomorrow." the cleric said.

"Oh. But why don't you report to the nearby church? Can they get you some funding or something?"

The cleric shook his head, "I did that, but I can't stay."

"Why not?"

"Didn't you know that the church burned down a few days ago?"

He did not. He just got back from his last commission yesterday afternoon after days in the wilderness and spent the remaining time sleeping and slouching on his bed.

The cleric continued, "It burned down from some kind of malfunction from the kitchen area fire magic when I came to this town," after a moment, he corrected himself, "Ah, no. It actually burned down the moment I stepped into the church threshold, and because of its old age and considering that a lot of the building body were made with woods, it burned quickly and thoroughly."

"..."

Someone whose more unlucky than him is so rare it's practically nonexistent.

As a fellow man who doesn't have any point on their luck stat, Adrian felt a kind of compassion towards the cleric, and before his brain could process more, his mouth started talking, "If you don't have anywhere else to stay, would you like to stay at my house for some time? I have a free room so you can stay there until you're settled."

Having someone giving him that kind of proposal out of the blue by a stranger, the shorter man in front of him stared unblinkingly at him. Realizing that that kind of proposal indeed is weird and afraid that he will ended up walking away and calling a patrolling knight on him for some kind of poor attempt at kidnapping, he hurriedly wanted to rephrase his words, but the cleric was faster.

"Are you for real? Can I? Thank you so much! If I can't find a place to stay I most likely have to sleep on some alleyway in the town but you saved me," he said happily.

...No, wait. Even I thought that my proposal is weird after all, but why won't you?!

"Oh, but if I just stayed without doing anything that wouldn't be good. Is there anything I can help with to at least pay for the room? I can help with some chores too! I can also cook, it's not that great but at least they're edible," he said enthusiastically. "Or I can help you with healing! I see that you're also an adventurer and you have some wounds in you. I use my healing magic a lot so I'm very confident with my healing magic. What do you think about it?"

Listening to his rapid fire words, Adrian could only "Oh"-ed and nodded along with whatever he said. There's a sense of cuteness when he saw the cleric's sunny disposition, so he decided to give up on taking back his proposal and just see how the future goes. He probably should educate this man to not be too trusting to strangers sometimes though...

He was still immersed with his thoughts as the cleric continued, "I don't know how long I would stay in this town, but if I could, I would like to settle here, this looks like a good town to live in," he thought for a bit before added, "Well, except for those four rude men." 

"Did you move from ton to town often?" Adrian asked, curious.

"Yes. It seems like I was born under an ill omened twin star and bad luck followed me, so it would be better if I move when I have the means to do it since it makes a lot of people uncomfortable to be around me. Not to mention that the Oracle who informed me that said that if I could find another person who was born under the same twin star and stay close to them, my luck would change somewhat. Well, a lot of it seems to be me somehow hurting people around me, aside from me having an occasional pickpocket or falling on the road and the like, so the Bishop who was in charge of me wanted me to go on a journey to find the other twin star person. No clue how though," he shrugged.

He was stunned. "Is that really possible…?"

He actually has no doubts that the man before him was the one he was looking for, but he doesn't want to jump into conclusions and need more proof. If being close with him were able to change their luck, even for a tiny bit, he would hold on to this man even if it kills him!

Adrian was having a fist pump in his mind while the other man was staring curiously at him who didn't speak after listening to his story.

"You might think that this kind of story is ridiculous, but if you have a second thought because of my luck that might affect you, that's alright too. I'm used to it," he said with the same innocent smile he had throughout their conversation.

Adrian answered promptly, "No no no, it's nothing like that," he coughed to hide his embarrassment and changed the topic, "I only realized that we've been speaking this whole time but I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Adrian Marx, what's your name?"

He smiled and raised his hand, which the cleric grasped and shook firmly.

Smiling brightly, he said, "I'm Leon. Leonard Cohen."

Staring at the sunny looking man in front of him, Adrian can't help but hope that maybe this chance encounter is the beginning of everything.

…

...

...Until he realizes that he also has been pickpocketed. 

END…?